Daily Success! The secret of speed – Ezekiel Atang

1 Kings 18:46 KJV
“And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel”.

We all do not go through life in the same way and at the same frequency. There are many people that have arrived certain places and certain levels of life at rather very fast pace than others, and there are reasons for this. Everything is possible in life, including speed. Speed is exciting, speed makes you feel fulfilled, it gives you a great sense of progress etc. So, I really can’t imagine anyone who does not desire speed in life.

As we can see in our text, speed for Elijah, was as a function of the hand of God upon him. The hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and it made him to outrun a chariot. Not just an ordinary chariot by the way, but that of the king; which must have been the best and state of the art chariot. The hand of God can cause you to overtake the best of the best. The latest knowledge and sophistication is no match for the hand of the Lord on a life. Those who have gone ahead of you can be overtaken in a moment, regardless of how long ago they left you behind, so long as the hand of God is upon your life.

However, there is a secret to the hand of God being upon a man’s life, and that secret is in dwelling in the secret place of the most high God – It is the place of prayer fellowship with God. It is recorded in earlier verses of today’s text that Elijah put his head between his knees and prayed to God for rain on the earth again, and each time he prayed he sent someone to see the condition of the cloud, if there were any signs of rain. For six straight times there was no rain, until it was the seventh time. So, Elijah was willing to tarry in prayer till there was something to show that it was going to rain. The secret of God’s hand is not just prayer, but tarrying in prayer and consistency in prayer.
Receive grace to connect with the hand of God upon your life in Jesus Name.

Action Points
i. Trust God to enable you stay long and consistent in prayer.
ii. Deliberately remove everything that could distract you from a solid prayer life.

Prayer
-Lord I need your hand upon my life for speed in Jesus Name.
-I decree that the days of slow and draggy existence are over in Jesus Name.
-I receive the grace to stay in your presence and in consistent prayer life in Jesus Name.

Nugget
Those who have gone ahead of you can be overtaken in a moment, regardless of how long ago they left you behind, so long as the hand of God is upon your life.

HOW TO LOVE THE LORD

Colossians 3:1-2 KJV
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth”.

Loving the Lord is not that difficult, and it is not a complex matter at all. Loving the Lord begins with accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour. By so doing, you would be accepting the sacrifice that He made on the cross for you over two thousand years ago – this is how we get into Christ. It therefore means you have taken part in His death burial and resurrection already. Having risen with Him, something had to be done to your affection, which is a feeling of fondness or liking. Affection is a feeling or emotion.

Setting your affection on things above really means getting emotionally affected by the things of God. We have people who say they love the Lord, but without any kind of affection or emotion to it. The things above should affect you. By ‘things above’ I am referring to the things that God cares about. The work of God, the house of God, the salvation of souls, the healing and deliverance of the lost in neighbourhoods, communities and in nations. It is to be touched by what touches God. It is seeing things the way God sees them. People like these will stop at nothing to make sure nothing is lacking in the kingdom of God, and they will go about it with passion.

How does this happen? It has to be by a deliberate programming of your mind and soul. Hence the Bible says to set your affections on things above, and the way to do this is recorded in our text as well; it is by seeking those things which are above. It reminds me of Matthew 6:33, which talks of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added to us. To seek is to diligently search for, make enquiries, resort to, pursue after, etc. Seeking is what results into affection, because you become affected by what you seek. At this point, giving or sacrificing plus service will never be a problem for you anymore. This is how to love God. But until you are emotionally affected by the work of God, loving God will be a drag.
Grace to love God in Jesus Name.

Action Points
i. Seek for things in the house of God and in the kingdom of God that you can pour yourself into.
ii. Ask God to transfer His passion to your heart.
iii. Ask the Lord to remove your passion for vain things; like football, fashion, movies, novels, etc.; and transfer such passion to His work.

Prayer
-Lord affect my heart with your love in Jesus Name.

Nugget
Until you are emotionally affected by the work of God, loving God will be a drag.

THE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY OF SATAN

John 10:10 KJV
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.

It is no longer a secret that satan has a ministry here on earth; which is to steal, kill and to destroy. Anyone who doesn’t know this will hardly know when the enemy is after him/her. The enemy will always steal something from you first and foremost, and that could be your joy, your relationship with God or a valuable relationship of your life; all in a bid to ground you. But it doesn’t stop there; we have seen by observation that there are other combinations he uses against believers.
The other combination is a five-fold approach of pride, stubbornness, bitterness, hatred and malice. The truth is this, wherever you see one of these five, then there is the likelihood that you will see the other four. Pride will mostly come first; it is the mother of them all. It was pride that gave birth to hell. As a matter of fact, pride should be the first sin ever, because that was what satan committed in heaven for God to kick him out. So, watch pride in your life and be diligent to guard your heath against it.

But just in case you do not know or believe that pride is lurking somewhere in your system, there are a few ways to find out. Screen yourself and see if you have bitterness in your life; if you do, then pride is somewhere there. If you manifest malice or hatred, then you are a culprit already. And then, stubborn people are always proud people. You are stubborn because you are proud, period! These things will help you know that satan is doing some overtime in your life. Stand up, fight and resist him today, and he will flee from you.

Action Points
i. Ask God to reveal every and any pride left in you.
ii. Observe yourself from now on, and at your slightest notice of pride, nip it there.

Prayer
-Lord I give you full permission to deal with all kinds of unhealthy pride in me in Jesus Name.

Nugget
The enemy will always steal something from you first, and that could be your joy, your relationship with God or any valuable relationship; all in a bid to ground you.

Daily Success! Fulfilling Your Fruitfulness Mandate – Ezekiel Atang

Genesis‬ 41:52‬ KJV‬‬“And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Fruitfulness is a mandate for the Christian and not just a thing that we do. It is a command of God, it is an expectation of God and it is what God designed to make this world continue for as long as He desires. When He said “be fruitful”, He meant it, and desired that we fill the whole earth with mankind. But we may need to look at the animals who are really fruitful and find out how they do it.

i. No animal or plant will be fruitful without remaining in their natural, God given habitat. Outside the water the fish will never be fruitful, detached from the ground the plant will never be fruitful, living in the water, the bird will never be able produce. Man has his natural and God given habitat and that habitat is the presence of God.

ii. We saw in our theme scripture for the month that God caused Joseph to be fruitful. It was God that caused the fruitfulness, not his wife, not his doctors, neither the state of his body. Hence he named his child Ephraim (fruitful). But how did it happen?

iii. The presence of God was Joseph’s secret. We see that he didn’t go into Egypt alone, neither did he get into the prison house alone. He was a dweller in the presence of the Lord:

“And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.”
“But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Genesis‬ 39:2, 21‬ KJV‬‬

Need I say more? The presence of God in consistency is what results in all round fruitfulness. We can see it further in this scripture:

“Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” (Psalms‬ 92:13-15‬ KJV‬‬).

Hannah located God’s presence in prayer and then she became fruitful. )1Samuel 1:9-19).
Zechariah was in God’s presence when the Angel of God visited him and he became fruitful. (Luke 1:8-24).
Locate your natural habitat today and fulfill your fruitfulness mandate in Jesus Name.

Action Points
i) You will need to go over today’s message again and make more sense out of it.
ii) Schedule times for engaging God’s presence daily.
iii) Ask God for consistency in His presence.

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Daily Success! From Emptiness To Abundance – Ezekiel Atang

2 Kings‬ 4:1-7‬ KJV‬“Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.”

The all so very popular story of the dead prophet’s widow has so much for us to learn from every time. And it seems to me that we will keep learning from it until the end of time. It is a story of rediscovery and recovery. Rediscovery because they had a pot of oil in their lives and in their house that they knew almost nothing about. This prophet died of debt because he had not really discovered that oil.

The man ran into debt to the point where he mortgaged his sons for loans. And he not paying the loan, thereby exposed his children to becoming slaves as payment for the loan he couldn’t pay. It was at this point that his widowed wife cried out for help to the prophet Elisha. And Elisha was led by God to point her to this forgotten and despised oil in their house. It was this oil that worked the wonders of provision and escape from slavery. Now, here are a few lessons to learn about this story:

i. The oil represents a special anointing, grace, ability, endowment, grace or special gift in your life.
ii. This oil is not in your life for fun. It is meant to be put to work so you can live a good life. So, for as long as you keep the oil unused your life will not make sense.

iii. The deployment of that oil is meant for empty vessels. And today’s empty vessels are needy people, lost souls, broken and dry people. You are supposed to reach out to them and pour your oil into them. And the more you pour into them the more the oil flows.

iv. Failure to use your oil will plunge you into poverty and a miserable life.

v. Failure to use your oil will make you suffer losses, such as: Loss of life, loss of family or children, loss of ministry and anointing, which is the loss of the oil itself.
My advice is simple; deploy your oil, and do it now.

Action Points
-Go over the devotional again and take steps.
-Ask God to show you your oil, or to help you identify your oil.

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Daily Success! Fruitfulness Is God’s Will For Your Life (2)

Genesis‬ 1:28‬ KJV‬‬“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

God’s will is God’s counsel for your life, and the bible says that there may be many devices in the heart of men, but it is the counsel of the Lord that shall stand; Proverbs 19:21. The will of God is God’s original intention for you. The will of God is God’s purpose for your life. Most importantly, the will of God is all that God has planned and concluded about your life already.

We know that because it was God’s first statement soon after creating man. God could have said any other thing, but He blessed them declaring “be fruitful”. When next you look at your life and wonder why things don’t seem to be working, always remember that it is His will for you to be fruitful in every way. When God blessed man with fruitfulness, He did not limit it to the fruit of the womb or the fruit of your work or spirit only. It was an all round fruitfulness. He simply said “be fruitful”.

The next thing you want to know is that fruitfulness is in you already. It is a blessing that came with your creation, long before your birth. As you may know already, you were not born the day you were created. You were created long before you were conceived and born. That was why God said to Jeremiah “before I formed you, I knew you…” Jeremiah 1:5. He was talking about Jeremiah’s creation in Genesis 1:26-28. And just in case you didn’t know, your creation is superior to your formation.

Your spirit is superior to your body. It is your spirit that helps your body stand erect, it is your spirit that helps you conquer adversity, it is your spirit that helps you overcome infirmities, and God had said to your spirit way back to be fruitful.

The conclusion is that you are fruitful regardless of what you see right. Please know that it is God’s will for you to be fruitful, and you are actually fruitful according to God, regardless of what doctor’s or test results say.

Action Points
-Thank God for today’s message.
-Thank Him for your fruitfulness.
-Declare to yourself seven times a day that you are fruitful in every area.
-Search out more scriptures on fruitfulness and claim them.

Prayer
-Lord it is so good to know that I was fruitful long before I was born.
-I thank you for my fruitful status.
-I refuse to walk by sight, I will walk by faith and by all you have said in your word in Jesus Name.
-I am fruitful, I am very fruitful, I am super fruitful in Jesus Name.

Nugget
When next you look at your life and wonder why things don’t seem to be working, always remember that it is His will for you to be fruitful in every way.